Improvement in machine knitting-needles



l NITHD STATES PATENT OFFICE..

THOMAS SANDS, OF GILFORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINE KNlTTlNG-YNEEDLES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,988, dated June 23,1863; antedated February 23, 1863.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAs SANDS, of Gilford,in the county of Belknapand State of New Hampshire, have invented an Improvement in MachineKnitting-Needles, and I do hereby declare that the following is a fulland exact description thereof, reference being had'v to the accompanyingdrawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon.

Figure I represents a common needle before it is bent; Fig. II, a commonneedle after it is bent; Fig. II I, the improved needle before it isbent; Fig. IV, the improved needle after it is bent.

My improvement relates to the steel needles that are used in machinesfor knitting hosiery and all fabrics in which a needle having an elasticor iieXible hook is made use of to form a knitted or tambour stitch. lhave been led to this improvement by the kuowledge of the fact thatgreat numbers of needles are broken, the average ior tive months pastbeing two hundred per day in a manutactory where'three thousand sevenhundred and thirty-four needles are in use. The position of the break isalmost always at the bend or short turn where the hook or barb joins theshank, for it is this point that is bent and restored to its naturalposition every time that the barb is pressed in .against the shank toallow the needle to pass through the meshes of the yarnthat is to say,at every stitch. This constant bending at one point, usually dJ-ffnetmore than one-tenth ot' an inch in length,

soon destroys the ber of the steel, the needle is broken, and a new onesubstituted.

My improvement consists in this: I change the position of the pointwhere curvature takes place when the barb is moved toward or away fromthe shank, by making the steel at the bend of the hook rigid andcausingthe flexure to take place upon nearly the whole length of thebarb and upon half an inch or more (according to the size of the needle)of the lower part of the shank, as more fully shown in the drawings. Itwill be observed that the common needle, Fig. I, has a uniform taperfrom B to O. Thus no more strength is given to the-bend of the needle atB, Fig. II, than to any other part, and consequently it breaks at thispoint. In my improved needle, Fig. III, aswell or prominence, qE, ismade at a distance from the point F about equal to the length of thebarb or hook E F', Fig. IV. The thickness or size at the point E issuflicient to make the needle iniiexible at the bend and throw all ot1the motion into a part of the shank and into the whole ot` the length ofthe barb that lies between the enlarged bend and the point of the needleor part which enters the eye when the barb is closedV down. As theneedle is rigid at the bend or lower end, it cannot break `at thatpoint, and when the barb moves in or out, to carry or let go the thread,this motion is distributed over a great length (on both shank and barb)as compared with the short bend in the common needle, and consequently'the steel retains its elasticity for a long time.

Experiment with my needles for live months in the establishment abovereferred to shows that the breakage is forty-eight per day instead oftwo hundred, making an annual saving of about forty-six thousandneedles.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A machine knittingneedle that is rigid or inflexible at the bend andilexible either upon the barb or upon the shank, or upon both barb andshank, substantially as herein described.

THOMAS SANDS. In presence of- S. T. THOMAS, THOMAS H. BELT.

